{"id":890,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=890"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:03","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:03","slug":"21-the-victory-of-the-fathers-vol-10-the-secret-of-the-veda-volume-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/10-the-secret-of-the-veda-volume-10\/21-the-victory-of-the-fathers-vol-10-the-secret-of-the-veda-volume-10","title":{"rendered":"-21_The Victory of the Fathers.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nC<\/font>HAPTER<\/font>
\nXIX <\/font><\/b> <\/p>\n


\nThe Victory of the Fathers <\/font><\/b> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nT<\/font>HE <\/font><\/b>hymns addressed by the great Rishi
\nVamadeva to the divine Flame, to the Seer-Will, Agni are among
\nthe most mystic in expression in the Rig-veda and though quite
\nplain in their sense if we hold firmly in our mind the system of
\nsignificant figures employed by the Rishis, will otherwise seem
\nonly a brilliant haze of images baffling our comprehension. The
\nreader has at every moment to apply that fixed notation which is
\nthe key to the sense of the hymns; otherwise he will be as much
\nat a loss as a reader of metaphysics who has not mastered the
\nsense of the philosophical terms that are being constantly used
\nor, let us say, one who tries to read Panini’s Sutras without knowing the
\npeculiar system of grammatical notation in which they
\nare expressed. We have, however, already enough light upon
\nthis system of images to understand well enough what Vamadeva
\nhas to tell us about the great achievement of the human fore-fathers. <\/p>\n

In order to hold clearly in our minds at the start what that
\ngreat achievement was we may put before ourselves the clear
\nand sufficient formulas in which Parashara Shaktya expresses
\nthem. "Our fathers broke open the firm and strong places by
\ntheir words, yea, the Angirasas broke open the hill by their
\ncry; they made in us the path to the great heaven; they found
\nthe Day and Swar and vision and the luminous Cows", cakrur
\ndivo bṛ<\/span>hato
\ngātum asme, ahaḥ<\/span>
\nsvar vividuḥ<\/span>
\nketum usrāḥ<\/span>.,<\/i>
\n(1.71.2).
\nThis path, he tells us, is the path which leads to immortality; "they who entered into all things that bear right fruit formed a
\npath towards the immortality; earth stood wide for them by the
\ngreatness and by the Great <\/b>Ones,<\/span>
\nthe mother Aditi with her sons
\ncame (or, manifested herself) for the upholding" (I.72.9).\u00b9 That <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>Ā<\/font> \u00a0<\/span>ye
\nviśvā svapatyāni tasthuh<\/font><\/span><\/i>̣<\/font><\/span> krn<\/font>̣<\/font><\/span>vānāso
\namr<\/font>̣<\/font><\/span>tatvāya gātum; mahnā mahadbhih<\/font>̣<\/font><\/span> pr<\/font>̣<\/font><\/span>thivī
\nvi tasthe mātā putrair aditir dhāyase veh<\/font>̣<\/font><\/span>.<\/font><\/i>
\n<\/font> <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 191<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

is to say, the physical being visited by the greatness of the infinite
\nplanes above and by the power of the great godheads who reign
\non those planes breaks its limits, opens out to the Light and is
\nupheld in its new wideness by the infinite Consciousness, mother
\nAditi, and her sons, the divine Powers of the supreme Deva.
\nThis is the Vedic immortality. <\/p>\n

The means of this finding and expanding are also very succinctly stated by
\nParashara in his mystic, but still clear and
\nimpressive style. "They held the truth, they enriched its thought; then indeed, aspiring souls (aryaḥ<\/span>),<\/i> they, holding it in thought,
\nbore it diffused in all their being", dadhan ṛ<\/span>tam dhanayan asya
\ndhītim, ād id aryo didhiṣ<\/span>vo vibhṛ<\/span>trāḥ<\/span>,<\/i> (1.71.3). The image in
\nvibhṛ<\/span>trāḥ<\/span><\/i> suggests the upholding
\nof the thought of the Truth in
\nall the principles of our being or, to put it in the ordinary Vedic
\nimage, the seven-headed thought in all the seven waters, apsu
\ndhiyam dadhiṣ<\/span>e,<\/i>
\nas we have seen it elsewhere expressed in almost
\nidentical language; this is shown by the image that immediately
\nfollows, \u2014 "The doers of the work go towards the unthirsting
\n(waters) which increase the divine births by the satisfaction of
\ndelight", atṛ<\/span>ṣ<\/span>yantīr apaso yanti acchā,
\ndevān janma prayasā vardhayantīḥ<\/span>.<\/i> The sevenfold
\nTruth-Consciousness in the satisfied
\nsevenfold Truth-being increasing the divine births in us by the
\nsatisfaction of the soul’s hunger for the Beatitude, this is the
\ngrowth of immortality. It is the manifestation of that trinity of
\ndivine being, light and bliss which the Vedantins afterwards called
\nSachchidananda. <\/p>\n

The sense of this universal diffusion of Truth and the birth
\nand activity of all the godheads in us assuring an universal and
\nimmortal life in place of our present limited mortality is made
\nyet clearer by Parashara in 1.68. Agni, the divine Seer-Will, is
\ndescribed as ascending to heaven and unrolling the veil of the
\nnights from all that is stable and all that is mobile, "when he
\nbecomes the one God encompassing all these godheads with
\nthe greatness of his being. Then indeed all accept and cleave to the
\nWill (or the Work) when, O godhead, thou art born a living soul
\nfrom the dryness (i.e. from the material being, the desert, as it is
\ncalled, unwatered by the streams of the Truth); all enjoy god-
\nhead attaining to the truth and the immortality by their movements, <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 192<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nbhajanta viśve devatvam nāma, ṛ<\/span>tam sapanto amṛ<\/span>tam
\nevaiḥ<\/span>.<\/i> The
\nimpulse of the Truth, the thinking of the Truth be-
\ncomes a universal life (or pervades all the life), and in it all fulfil
\ntheir workings," ṛ<\/span>tasya
\npreṣā<\/span> ṛ<\/span>tasya dhītir viśvādyur
\nviśve apāmsi
\ncakruḥ<\/span><\/i> (Riks
\n1-3). <\/p>\n

And in order that we may not, haunted by the unfortunate
\nmisconstruction of the Veda which European scholarship has
\nimposed on the modern mind, carry with us the idea of the seven
\nearthly rivers of the Punjab into the super-terrestrial achievement
\nof the human forefathers, we will note what Parashara in his clear
\nand illuminating fashion tells us about the seven rivers. "The
\nfostering cows of the Truth (dhenavaḥ<\/span>,<\/i> an image applied to the
\nrivers, while gāvaḥ<\/span><\/i>
\nor usrāḥ<\/span><\/i> <\/span>expresses the luminous cows of the
\nSun) nourished him, lowing, with happy udders, enjoyed in
\nheaven; obtaining right thinking as a boon from the supreme
\n(plane) the rivers flowed wide and evenly over the hill;" ṛ<\/span>tasya
\nhi dhenavo vāvaśānāḥ<\/span>, smadūdhnīḥ<\/span> pīpayanta dyubhaktāḥ<\/span>; parāvataḥ<\/span> sumatim bhikṣ<\/span>amānāḥ<\/span>, vi sindhavaḥ<\/span> samayā sasrur adrim <\/i>(1.73.6). And in 1.72.8, speaking of them in a phrase which is
\napplied to the rivers in other hymns, he says "The seven mighty
\nones of heaven, placing aright the thought, knowing the Truth,
\ndiscerned in knowledge the doors of felicity; Sarama found the
\nfastness, the wideness of the luminous cows; thereby the human
\ncreature enjoys the bliss", svādhyo diva ā sapta yahvīḥ<\/span>, rāyo duro
\nvi ṛ<\/span>taj\u00f1ā ajānan;
\nvidad gavyarh saramā dṛ<\/span>l<\/span>̣<\/span>ham ūrvam, yenā nu
\nkam mānuṣī<\/span>
\nbhojate viṭ<\/span>.<\/i>
\nThese are evidently not the waters of
\nthe Punjab, but the rivers of Heaven, the streams of the
\nTruth,\u00b9
\ngoddesses like Saraswati, who possess the Truth in knowledge
\nand open by it the doors of the beatitude to the human creature.
\nWe see here too what I have already insisted on, that there is a close
\nconnection between the finding of the Cows and the outflowing of the Rivers; they are parts of one action, the achievement of the
\ntruth and immortality by men, ṛ<\/span>tam sapanto amṛ<\/span>tam
\nevaiḥ<\/span>.<\/i> <\/p>\n

It is now perfectly clear that the achievement of the Angirasas <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>Note that in 1.32.8, Hiranyastupa Angirasa
\ndescribes the waters released from Vritra
\nas "ascending the mind", <\/font> mono ruhān<\/font>̣ā<\/font><\/span>h<\/font><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span>),<\/font><\/i> and
\nelsewhere they are called the waters that have the
\nknowledge, <\/font> āpo vicetasah<\/font>̣<\/font><\/span><\/i>
\n(1.83.1). <\/font> <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 193<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

is the conquest of the Truth and the Immortality, that
\nSwar called also the great heaven, bṛ<\/span>hat dyauḥ<\/span>,<\/i>
\nis the plane of the
\nTruth above the ordinary heaven and earth which can be no
\nother than the ordinary mental and physical being; that the path
\nof the great heaven, the path of the Truth created by the Angirasas
\nand followed by the hound Sarama is the path to the Immortality, amṛ<\/span>tatvāya gātum<\/i>
\n(1.72.9); that the vision (ketu)<\/i> of the
\nDawn, the Day won by the Angirasas, is the vision proper to the
\nTruth-Consciousness; that the luminous cows of the Sun and
\nDawn wrested from the Panis are the illuminations of this Truth-
\nConsciousness which help to form the thought of the Truth,
\nṛ<\/span>tasya dhītiḥ<\/span>,<\/i> complete in the
\nseven-headed thought of Ayasya; that the Night of the Veda is the obscured consciousness of the
\nmortal being in which the Truth is subconscient, hidden in the
\ncave of the hill; that the recovery of the lost sun lying in this
\ndarkness of Night is the recovery of the sun of Truth out of the
\ndarkened subconscient condition; and that the down-flowing
\nearthward of the seven rivers must be the outstreaming action
\nof the sevenfold principle of our being as it is formulated in
\nthe Truth of the divine or immortal existence. Equally then must
\nthe Panis be the powers that prevent the Truth from emerging
\nout of the subconscient condition and that constantly strive
\nto steal its illuminations from man and throw him back into the
\nNight, and Vritra must be the power that obstructs and prevents
\nthe free movement of the illumined rivers of the Truth, obstructs
\nthe impulsion of the Truth in us, ṛ<\/span>tasya preṣā<\/span>,<\/i>
\nthe luminous impulsion, dyumatīm iṣ<\/span>am<\/i> (VII.5.8), which carries us
\nbeyond the
\nNight to the immortality. And the gods, the sons of Aditi, must
\nbe on the contrary the luminous divine powers, born of the
\ninfinite consciousness Aditi, whose formation and activity in
\nour human and mortal being are necessary for our growth into
\nthe godhead, into the being of the Deva (devatvam)<\/i> which is the
\nImmortality. Agni, the truth-conscious seer-will, is the principal
\ngodhead who enables us to effect the sacrifice; he leads it on the
\npath of the Truth, he is the warrior of the battle, the doer of the
\nwork, and his unity and universality in us comprehending in
\nitself all the other godheads is the basis of the Immortality. The
\nplane of the Truth to which we arrive is his own home and the <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 194<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

own home of the other gods, and the final home also of the soul
\nof man. And this immortality is described as a beatitude, a state
\nof infinite spiritual wealth and plenitude, ratna, rayi, vāja, rādhas,
\n<\/i>etc. the opening doors of our divine home are the doors of the
\nfelicity, rāyo duraḥ<\/span>,<\/i>
\nthe divine doors which swing wide open to
\nthose who increase the Truth (ṛ<\/span>tāvṛ<\/span>dhaḥ<\/span>)<\/i> and which are discovered
\nfor us by Saraswati and her sisters, by the seven Rivers,
\nby Sarama; to them and to the wide pasture (kṣ<\/span>etra)<\/i> in the unobstructed and
\nequal infinities of the vast Truth Brihaspati and
\nIndra lead upward the shining Herds. <\/p>\n

With these conceptions clearly fixed in our minds we shall
\nbe able to understand the verses of Vamadeva which only repeat
\nin symbolic language the substance of the thought expressed more
\nopenly by Parashara. It is to Agni the Seer-Will that Vamadeva’s
\nopening hymns are addressed. He is hymned as the friend or
\nbuilder of man’s sacrifice who awakes him to the vision, the
\nknowledge (ketu), sa cetayan manuso yaj\u00f1abandhuḥ<\/span><\/i> (IV. 1.9); so doing, "he dwells in the gated homes of this being, accomplishing;
\nhe, a god, has come to be the means of accomplishment of the mortal", sa
\nkṣ<\/span>eti asya duryāsu
\nsādhan, devo martasya
\nsadhanitvam āpa.<\/i> What is it that he accomplishes? The next
\nverse tells us. "May this Agni lead us in his knowledge towards
\nthat bliss of him which is enjoyed by the gods, that which by
\nthe thought all the immortals created and Dyauspita the father
\nout-pouring the Truth;" sa no agnir nayatu prajānan, acchā
\nratnam devabhaktam yad asya; dhiyā yad viśve amṛ<\/span>tā akṛ<\/span>ṇ<\/span>van,
\ndyauṣ<\/span>pitā
\njanitā satyam ukṣ<\/span>an.<\/i>
\nThis is Parashara’s beatitude of
\nthe Immortality created by all the powers of the immortal god-head doing their
\nwork in the thought of the Truth and in its
\nimpulsion, and the out-pouring of the Truth is evidently the out-pouring of the
\nwaters as is indicated by the word ukṣ<\/span>an,<\/i> Parashara’s equal diffusion of the seven rivers of the
\ntruth over the hill. <\/p>\n

Vamadeva then goes on to tell us of the birth of this great,
\nfirst or supreme force, Agni, in the Truth, in its waters, in its
\noriginal home. <\/b>"He<\/span> was
\nborn, the first, in the waters, in the
\nfoundation of the vast world (Swar), in its womb, (i.e. its seat and
\nbirthplace, its original home); without head and feet, concealing his two
\nextremities, setting himself to his work in the lair of <\/p>\n

\n

\nPage \u2013 195<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

the Bull" (Rik 11). The Bull is the Deva or Pumsha, his lair is
\nthe plane of the Truth, and Agni the Seer-Will, working in the
\nTruth-Consciousness, creates the worlds; but he conceals his
\ntwo extremities, his head and feet; that is to say, his workings
\nact between the superconscient and the subconscient in which
\nhis highest and his lowest states are respectively concealed, one
\nin an utter light, the other in an utter darkness. From that he
\ngoes forth as the first and supreme force and is born to the Bull
\nor the Lord by the action of the seven powers of the Bliss, the
\nseven Beloved. "He went forward by illumined knowledge as
\nthe first force, in the seat of the Truth, in the lair of the Bull,
\ndesirable, young, full in body, shining wide; the seven Beloved
\nbore him to the Lord" (Rik 12). <\/p>\n

The Rishi then comes to the achievement of the human
\nfathers, asmākam atra pitaro manuṣ<\/span>yāḥ<\/span>, abhi pra sedur ṛ<\/span>tam
\nāśuṣā<\/span>ṇā<\/span>ḥ<\/span>:<\/i> "Here our human fathers
\nseeking possession of the
\nTruth went forward to it; the bright cows in their covering prison, the good
\nmilkers whose pen is in the rock they drove upward
\n(to the Truth), the Dawns answered their call. They rent the hill
\nasunder and made them bright; others all around them declared
\nwide this (Truth) of theirs; drivers of the herds they sang the
\nhymn to the doer of works (Agni), they found the light, they
\nshone in their thoughts (or, they accomplished the work by their \u00a6
\nthoughts). They with the mind that seeks the light (the cows,
\ngavyatā manasā)<\/i> rent the firm and compact hill that environed
\nthe
\nluminous cows; the souls that desire opened by the divine word,
\nvacasā daivyena,<\/i> the firm pen full of the kine" (Riks 13-15).
\nThese are the ordinary images of the Angiras legend, but in the
\nnext verse Vamadeva uses a still more mystic language. "They
\nconceived in mind the first name of the fostering cows, they found
\nthe thrice seven supreme (seats) of the Mother; the females of
\nthe herd knew that and they followed after it; the ruddy one was
\nmanifested by the victorious attainment (or, the splendour) of
\nthe cow of Light", te manvata prathamam nāma dhenos triḥ<\/span> <\/span>sapta mātuḥ<\/span>
\nparamāṇ<\/span>i
\nvindan; taj jānatīr abhyanūṣ<\/span>ata vrā,
\nāvirbhuvad aruṇī<\/span>r
\nyaśasā goḥ<\/span>.<\/i>
\nThe Mother here is Aditi, the
\ninfinite consciousness, who is the dhenuḥ<\/span><\/i> <\/span>or
\nfostering Cow with
\nthe seven rivers for her sevenfold streaming as well as gauḥ<\/span>,<\/i> the <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 196<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Cow of Light with the Dawns for her children; the Ruddy One
\nis the divine Dawn and the herd or rays are her dawning illuminations. The
\nfirst name of the Mother with her thrice seven
\nsupreme seats, that which the dawns or mental illuminations
\nknow and move towards, must be the name or deity of the
\nsupreme Deva, who is infinite being and infinite consciousness
\nand infinite bliss, and the seats are the three divine worlds,
\ncalled earlier in the hymn the three supreme births of Agni,
\nSatya, Tapas and Jana of the Puranas, which correspond to
\nthese three infinities of the Deva and each fulfils in its own way
\nthe sevenfold principle of our existence: thus we get the series
\nof thrice seven seats of Aditi manifested in all her glory by the
\nopening out of the Dawn of Truth.\u00b9 Thus we see that the achievement of the
\nLight and Truth by the human fathers is also an
\nascent to the Immortality of the supreme and divine status, to the
\nfirst name of the all-creating infinite Mother, to her thrice seven
\nsupreme degrees of this ascending existence, to the highest levels
\nof the eternal hill (sānu, adri).<\/i> <\/p>\n

This immortality is the beatitude enjoyed by the gods of
\nwhich Vamadeva has already spoken as the thing which Agni has
\nto accomplish by the sacrifice, the supreme bliss with its
\nthrice seven ecstasies (1.20.7). For he proceeds; "Vanished the
\ndarkness, shaken in its foundation; Heaven shone out (rocata
\ndyauḥ<\/span>,<\/i>
\nimplying the manifestation of the three luminous worlds of
\nSwar, divo rocanāni);<\/i> upward rose the light of the divine Dawn; the Sun entered the vast fields (of the Truth) beholding the
\nstraight things and the crooked in mortals. Thereafter indeed
\nthey awoke and saw utterly (by the sun’s separation of the
\nstraight from the crooked, the truth from the falsehood); then
\nindeed they held in them the bliss that is enjoyed in heaven,
\nratnam dhārayanta dyubhaktam.<\/i> Let all the gods be in all our
\nhomes, let there be the truth for our thought, O Mitra, O
\nVaruna", viśve viśvāsu duryāsu devā mitra
\ndhiye varuṇ<\/span>a
\nsatyam
\nastu<\/i> (Riks 17,18). This is evidently the same idea as has been expressed  <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>The same idea is expressed by Medhatithi
\nKanwa (1.20.7) as the thrice seven ecstasies of
\nthe Beatitude, <\/font> ratnāni trih<\/font>̣<\/font><\/span> sāptāni,<\/font><\/i> or more literally, the ecstasies in their three series of seven,
\neach of which the Ribhus bring out in their separate and complete expression,
\n<\/font> ekam
\nekam
\nsuśastibhih<\/font>̣<\/font><\/span>.<\/font><\/i>
\n<\/font> <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 197<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

in different language by Parashara Shaktya, the pervasion
\nof the whole existence by the thought and impulse of the Truth
\nand the working of all the godheads in that thought and impulsion to create in
\nevery part of our existence the bliss and the
\nimmortality. <\/p>\n

The hymn closes thus: "May I speak the word towards
\nAgni shining pure, the priest of the offering, greatest in sacrifice
\nwho brings to us the all; may he press out both the pure udder of
\nthe Cows of Light and the purified food of the plant of delight
\n(the Soma) poured out everywhere. He is the infinite being of all
\nthe lords of sacrifice (the gods) and the guest of all human beings; may Agni, accepting into himself the increasing manifestation
\nof the gods, knower of the births, be a giver of happiness"
\n(Riks 19, 20). <\/p>\n

In the second hymn of the fourth Mandala we get very
\nclearly and suggestively the parallelism of the seven Rishis who
\nare the divine Angirasas and the human fathers. The passage is
\npreceded by four verses, IV.2.11-14, which bring in the idea of
\nthe human seeking after the Truth and the Bliss. "May he the
\nknower discern perfectly the Knowledge and the Ignorance, the
\nwide levels and the crooked that shut in mortals; and, O God, for
\na bliss fruitful in offspring, lavish on us Diti and protect Aditi."
\nThis eleventh verse is very striking in its significance. We have
\nthe opposition of the Knowledge and the Ignorance familiar to
\nVedanta; and the Knowledge is likened to the wide open levels
\nwhich are frequently referred to in the Veda; they are the large-levels to which those ascend who labour in the sacrifice and they
\nfind there Agni seated self-blissful (V.7.5); they are the wide
\nbeing which he makes for his own body (V.4.6), the level wide-
\nness, the unobstructed vast. It is therefore the infinite being of
\nthe Deva to which we arrive on the plane of the Truth, and it
\ncontains the thrice seven supreme seats of Aditi the Mother, the
\nthree supreme births of Agni within the Infinite, anante antaḥ<\/span> <\/i>(IV. 1.7). The Ignorance on the other hand is identified with the
\ncrooked or uneven levels\u00b9 which shut in mortals and it is therefore the limited, divided mortal existence. Moreover it is evident
\nthat the Ignorance is the Diti of the next half-verse, ditim ca<\/i> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>Cittim acittim cinavad vi vidvān, pr<\/font><\/i><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span>s<\/font><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span>t<\/font><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span>heva vītā vr<\/font><\/span>̣j<\/font><\/span>ina ca martān. Vr<\/font><\/span>̣<\/font><\/span>jina<\/font><\/span><\/i> means crooked,<\/font><\/span> and is used in the Veda to indicate the crookedness of
\nthe falsehood as opposed to the open
\nstraightness of the Truth, but the poet has evidently in his mind the verbal
\nsense of vrj, to<\/i> separate, screen off, and it is this verbal sense <\/b>in<\/span> the adjective that governs <\/font>
\nmartān.<\/font><\/i> <\/font>
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 198<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

rāsva aditim uruṣ<\/span>ya,<\/i>
\nand the Knowledge is Aditi. Diti, called also
\nDanu, means division and the obstructing powers or Vritras are
\nher children, Danus, Danavas, Daityas, while Aditi is existence
\nin its infinity and the mother of the gods. The Rishi desires a
\nbliss fruitful in offspring, that is in divine works and their results
\nand this is to be effected through the conquest of all the riches
\nheld in itself by our divided mortal being but kept from us by the
\nVritras and Panis and through the holding of them in the infinite
\ndivine being. The latter is to be in us protected from the ordinary tendency of
\nour human existence, from subjection to the
\nsons of Danu or Diti. The idea is evidently identical with that of
\nthe Isha Upanishad which declares the possession of the Knowledge and the Ignorance, the unity and the multiplicity in the one
\nBrahman as the condition for the attainment of Immortality. <\/p>\n

We<\/span>
\nthen come to the seven divine seers. "The seers unconquered declared the Seer (the Deva, Agni) holding him
\nwithin in the homes of the human being; thence (from this embodied human being)
\nmayst thou, O Agni, aspiring by the work
\n(aryaḥ<\/span>),<\/i>
\nbehold by thy advancing movements these of whom
\nthou must have the vision, the transcendent ones (the godheads
\nof the Deva)"; kavim śaśāsuḥ<\/span> kavayo adabdhāḥ<\/span>, nidhārayqnto duryāsu
\nāyoḥ<\/span>; atas
\ntvam dṛ<\/span>śyān
\nagna etān, paḍ<\/span>bhiḥ<\/span> paśyer adbhutān
\narya evaiḥ<\/span><\/i>
\n(Rik 12). This is again the journey to the vision of the
\nGodhead. "Thou, O Agni, youngest power, art the perfect guide
\n(on that journey) to him who sings the word and offers the Soma
\nand orders the sacrifice; bring to the illumined who accomplishes
\nthe work the bliss with its vast delight for his increasing, satisfying the
\ndoer of the work (or, the man, carṣ<\/span>aṇ<\/span>iprāḥ<\/span>).<\/i> Now,
\nO Agni, of all that we have done with our hands and our feet and
\nour bodies the right thinkers (the Angirasas) make as it were thy
\nchariot by the work of the two arms (Heaven and Earth, bhurijoḥ<\/span>);<\/i> seeking to possess the
\nTruth they have worked their way to
\nit (or won control of it)", ṛ<\/span>tam yemuḥ<\/span>
\nsudhya āśuṣā<\/span>ṇā<\/span>ḥ<\/span><\/i> (Riks 13,
\n14). "Now as the seven seers of Dawn, the Mother, the supreme
\ndisposers (of the sacrifice), may we beget for ourselves the gods; <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 199<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

may we become the Angirasas, sons of Heaven, breaking open
\nthe wealth-filled hill, shining in purity" (Rik 15). We have here
\nvery clearly the seven divine Seers as the supreme ordainers of the
\nworld-sacrifice and the idea of the human being "becoming"
\nthese seven Seers, that is to say, creating them in himself and
\ngrowing into that which they mean, just as he becomes the
\nHeaven and Earth and the other gods or, as it is otherwise put,
\nbegets or creates or forms (Jan, kṛ<\/span>, tan)<\/i> the divine births in his
\nown being. <\/p>\n

Next the example of the human fathers is given as the original type of this
\ngreat becoming and achievement. "Now also,
\neven as our supreme ancient fathers, O Agni, seeking to possess
\nthe Truth, expressing the Word, travelled to the purity and the
\nlight; breaking open the earth (the material being) they un-
\ncovered the ruddy ones (the Dawns, the Cows); perfected in works
\nand in light, seeking the godheads, gods, forging the Births like
\niron (or, forging the divine births like iron), making Agni a pure
\nflame, increasing Indra, they attained and reached the wideness
\nof the Light (of the Cows, gavyam ūrvam).<\/i> As if herds of the
\nCow in the field of riches, that was manifested to vision which is
\nthe Births of the Gods within, O puissant One; they both accomplished the wide
\nenjoyments (or, longings) of mortals and
\nworked as aspirers for the increase of the higher being"; ā
\nyūtheva ks<\/span><\/i>̣<\/span>umati
\npaśvo akhyad devānām yaj janima anti ugra;<\/i> martānām cid urvaśir akṛ<\/span>pran vṛ<\/span>dhe cid arya uparasya āyoḥ<\/span>, <\/i>(Riks 16-18). Evidently, this is a repetition in other language of
\nthe double idea of possessing the riches of Diti, yet safeguarding
\nAditi. "We have done the work for thee, we have become perfect in works,
\nthe wide-shining Dawns have taken up their home
\nin the Truth (or, have robed themselves with the Truth), in the
\nfullness of Agni and his manifold delight, in the shining eye of
\nthe god in all his brightness" (Rik 19). <\/p>\n

The Angirasas are again mentioned in IV. 3.11, and some of
\nthe expressions which lead up to this verse, are worth noting; for
\nit cannot be too often repeated that no verse in the Veda can be
\nproperly understood except by reference to its context, to its
\nplace in the thought of the Sukta, to all that precedes and all that
\nfollows. The hymn opens with a call to men to create Agni who <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 200<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

sacrifices in the truth, to create him in his form of golden light
\n(hiraṇ<\/span>yarūpam,<\/i>
\nthe gold being always the symbol of the solar
\nlight of the Truth, ṛ<\/span>tam
\njyotiḥ<\/span>)<\/i>
\nbefore the Ignorance can form
\nitself, purā tanayitnor acittāt<\/i> (IV. 3.1). The god is asked to
\nawaken
\nto the work of man and the truth in him as being himself "the
\nTruth-conscious who places aright the thought", ṛ<\/span>tasya bodhi
\nṛ<\/span>tacit svādhiḥ<\/span><\/i> (IV:3.4), \u2014 for all
\nfalsehood is merely a wrong
\nplacing of the Truth. He is to refer all fault and sin and defect in
\nman to the various godheads or divine powers of the Divine
\nBeing so that it may be removed and the man declared finally
\nblameless before the Infinite Mother \u2014 aditaye anāgasaḥ<\/span><\/i> (1.24.
\n15), or for the infinite existence, as it is elsewhere expressed. <\/p>\n

Then in the ninth and tenth verses we have, expressed in
\nvarious formulas, the idea of the united human and divine existence, Diti and
\nAditi, the latter founding, controlling and flooding with itself the former. "The
\nTruth controlled by the Truth I
\ndesire (i.e. the human by the divine), together the unripe things
\nof the Cow and her ripe and honeyed yield (again the imperfect
\nhuman and the perfect and blissful divine fruits of the universal
\nconsciousness and existence); she (the cow) being black (the dark
\nand divided existence, Diti) is nourished by the shining water of
\nthe foundation, the water of the companion streams (jāmaryeṇ<\/span>a
\npayasā).<\/i> By the Truth Agni the Bull, the Male, sprinkled with
\nthe water of its levels, ranges unquivering, establishing wideness
\n(wide space or manifestation); the dappled Bull milks the pure
\nshining teat." The symbolic opposition between the shining
\nwhite purity of the One who is the source, seat, foundation and
\nthe variegated colouring of the Life manifested in the triple world
\nis frequent in the Veda; this image of the dappled Bull and the
\npure-bright udder or source of the waters only repeats therefore,
\nlike the other images, the idea of the multiple manifestations of
\nthe human life purified, tranquillised in its activities, fed by the
\nwaters of the Truth and the Infinity. <\/p>\n

Finally, the Rishi proceeds to the coupling, which we so
\nrepeatedly find, of the luminous Cows and the Waters. "By the
\nTruth the Angirasas broke open and hurled asunder the hill and
\ncame to union with the Cows; human souls, they took up their
\ndwelling in the blissful Dawn, Swar became manifest when Agni <\/p>\n

\n

\nPage \u2013 201<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

was born. <\/b>By<\/span> Truth the
\ndivine immortal waters, unoppressed,
\nwith their honeyed floods, O Agni, like a horse breasting forward
\nin its gallopings ran in an eternal flowing" (Riks 11, 12). These
\nfour verses in fact are meant to give the preliminary conditions
\nfor the great achievement of the Immortality. They are the
\nsymbols of the grand Mythus, the mythus of the Mystics in which
\nthey hid their supreme spiritual experience from the profane and,
\nalas! effectively enough from their posterity. That they were
\nsecret symbols, images meant to reveal the truth which they protected but only
\nto the initiated, to the knower, to the seer, Vamadeva himself tells us in the
\nmost plain and emphatic language in
\nthe last verse of this very hymn; "All these are secret words that
\nI have uttered to thee who knowest, O Agni, O Disposer, words
\nof leading, words of seer-knowledge that express their meaning
\nto the seer, \u2014 I have spoken them illumined in my words and
\nmy thinkings;" etā viśvā viduṣ<\/span>e tubhyam vedho nīthāni
\nagne
\nniṇ<\/span>yā vacāmsi;
\nnivacanā kavaye kāvyāni, aśamsiṣ<\/span>am matibhir vipra
\nukthaiḥ<\/span><\/i>
\n(IV.3.16). Secret words that have kept indeed their
\nsecret ignored by the priest, the ritualist, the grammarian, the
\npandit, the historian, the mythologist, to whom they have been
\nwords of darkness or seals of confusion and not what they were
\nto the supreme ancient forefathers and their illumined posterity,
\nniṇ<\/span>yā
\nvacāmsi nīthāni nivacanā kāvyāni.<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 202<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER XIX The Victory of the Fathers   THE hymns addressed by the great Rishi Vamadeva to the divine Flame, to the Seer-Will, Agni are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-10-the-secret-of-the-veda-volume-10","wpcat-17-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}